By Our Staff Writer
Ballot counting has been completed at most voting precincts, following the casting of ballots in Liberia’s Special Senatorial Elections and referendum across the country.
Since the National Elections Commission (NEC) was not making wearing of face/nose masks requirement before card-bearing voters form the queues, many of the eligible voters were seen without mask and the COVID-19 protocol of Social/Physical distancing wasn’t the order of the day around the country.
The most recent Update released by the National Public Health Institute (NPHIL) shows that there has been a total of 13 new COVID-19 infections with in the period of 24 hours, from December 2-3, 2020.
The elections are expected to bring in 15 new senators to the upper chamber, with voters deciding on key propositions including whether or not dual citizenship becomes legal, reduction in the tenures of the president and vice president, among others.
The most hotly contested seat in the senatorial elections is Montserrado County, which draws the ruling coalition’s Thomas Fallah against incumbent Darius Dillon of the opposition Collaborating Political Parties (CPP).
Voting passed off peacefully in most parts of the country.
Throughout the night, radio stations announced unofficial results from polling stations.
The Chairman of the National Elections Commission Davidetta Browne Lasannah says final results will not be released immediately, but that partial results will be announced progressively.
In the Monrovia area, few minor violent incidents were reporting including one at a precinct in the SD Cooper Road community in Monrovia’s Paynesville suburb, where it had earlier been reported that an opposition observer had been forced out of the center by a paramilitary personnel.
Two by-elections were also held on Tuesday to fill vacancies created in the House of Representatives by the deaths of Nagbe Sloh and Munah Pelham Youngblood of Sinoe and MOntserrado Counties respectively.